Sometimes we walk through a dry season when we can’t hear God speaking and struggle with doubt. When author Lynn Austin encountered a spiritual drought, she and her family planned a trip to Israel to reconnect with their faith. Listen as she shares her insights and revelations with Jo from her book, Pilgrimage: My Journey to a Deeper Faith in the Land Where Jesus Walked.
“We don’t realize how many changes the people in the Bible went through. Change is God’s template – not that He changes. [But] when we’re in a rut, He does something to get us moving again.”
When Lynn returned to the Holy Land again, she decided to seek God for her own sake rather than focus on how she might use the experiences for her writings. She draws a parallel between being spiritually thirsty and physically thirsty. In the arid climate of Israel, she was constantly aware of her need for water. When we’re in a spiritual desert, we tend to mask our thirst for Christ, the “living water,” with other things – buying things, food, social media, television shows. Sometimes God brings us to a desert to restore our awareness of our need for Him.
Lynn points to her time in the Garden of Gethsemane as a moving and eye-opening experience, especially after reading John 15. “There was an Israeli gardener… trimming the olive trees, and I could relate to that same cutting in my own life. At one point I wanted to jump up and say ‘Stop! You’re cutting too much!’ I asked our tour guide if they were cutting them down and he said, ‘No, it’s just regular winter pruning.’ It’s one thing to cut off the dead branches, but He even cuts off the living. God wanted me to be even more fruitful, and that’s why He was pruning.”
We are called to walk in faith rather than be stagnant and stop growing. Lynn says to continue in faith while accepting the changes and seasons of life. “Jesus says ‘Follow Me,’ which means He must be moving.”
Image: Flickr
